Phase-Boundary Session Hygiene Checklist

Use this checklist during long fleet or ship-it runs to decide whether to keep the current session (/compact) or pivot to a fresh one (/new).

Decision Rule

1. Use /compact when the objective is unchanged and only the phase changes.
2. Use /new when objective, domain, or deliverable changes.
3. Before either command, save a short handoff pointer: issue/PR URL, active branch, done/next/blocked note.

Phase Pivot Table

Transition	Preferred command	Why
Cleanup -> implementation on same issue	/compact	Keep issue context, drop cleanup noise
Implementation -> merge waiting	/compact	Keep acceptance criteria, drop code-edit detail
Merge waiting -> closeout on same issue	/compact	Keep release evidence, drop CI log churn
Cleanup -> RCA on unexpected failure	/new	RCA needs failure-focused context, not cleanup transcript
Implementation -> docs pack for unrelated feature	/new	New deliverable and audience
RCA -> follow-up implementation fix	/new	Switch from analysis to change-execution context
Any phase -> different repository	/new	Cross-repo context is not reusable

Fleet Loop Checkpoints

At each phase boundary:

1. Capture current /tasks snapshot.
2. Record PR/check status for in-scope work.
3. Confirm stop condition status (continue|complete|blocked|max_cycles|manual_stop).
4. Apply the decision rule (/compact vs /new) before continuing.

Anti-Patterns

1. Repeating full orchestration prompts without carrying bounded loop state.
2. Using /new for minor phase changes in the same objective.
3. Keeping stale logs from cleanup or RCA when switching to unrelated docs work.